CSAFM AGM– St John’s CMOS-CGU-AMS Meeting, May 30, 2007
Present: Paul Bartlett, Trevor Coates, Elyn Humphreys, Jenna Rappai, Pierre-Luc Lizotte, Dave Spittlehouse, Ian Strachan, Julie Turgeon, Sami Ullah, Jon Warland, John Wilson.
Meeting called to order
1. Motion to adopt agenda: Dave S., 2nd John Wilson
2. Motion to approve 2006 minutes: Paul B., 2nd Dave S.
3. Business arising
The society’s by-laws have been updated to include the society’s name change to Canadian Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.
The by-laws did not include a newsletter editor position in the executive, so no action was needed in order to remove such a position from the executive.
With regards to society finances, Elyn H. received a message from Rob Gordon that there are approximately 48 members and there is approximately $10,138.00 in the bank.
4. Executive Reports
a) President: see item #6 below
b) Treasurer: see above regarding CSAFM finances
c) Western director (Dave S.): Dave is now the chair of the AMS STAC and is in the process of organizing the next Ag For Met meeting. At the moment, venue and time has not been decided.
d) Eastern director (Elyn H.): none
e) Webpage (Jon Warland): Jon continues to maintain the webpage and invites membership for their input. For example, the webpage could include the nomination forms for recent recipients of CSAFM awards and fellowships. Jon will email the membership via the listserve to invite members to send in links to the homepages for posting on the webpage.
5. Awards
No nominations were made this year for the Graham K. Walker Award or the CSAFM fellow.
Three student travel awards will be sent out after the meeting.
The Campbell Scientific Student Award will be given at this year’s meeting to a student presenting in the CSAFM session organized by Ian S. The society has been assured by Claude Labine that this award will continue to be available as long as CSAFM continues to exist.
6. Discussion of the future of CSAFM
Possibilities include becoming 1) a special interest group of CMOS, 2) a section of the CGU, and 3) continue as is. Once again, a lively discussion ensued. The members discussed the services that CSAFM currently provides. These include a venue for networking, support for students, and communicating the discipline through the website. The members decided that there is no serious disadvantage to remaining on our own as we are able to provide & build on these services and remain flexible to join a variety of meetings including those with CMOS, CGU, and Ag and Forest Met. It was suggested that we continue to work on attracting new members. A suggestion to facilitate maintaining memberships is to introduce a multiple year and/or lifetime membership.
7. Executive for 2007-08
One-year positions:
President: John Wilson
President Elect: vacant
Past-President: Ian Strachan
Two-year positions:
Western Director: Dave Spittlehouse
Eastern Director: Paul Bartlett
Secretary/Treasurer: Elyn Humphreys
Communications Director: Jon Warland
Student Representative (interim position)1: Jenna Rappai
1 New executive will work to include this new executive position in the constitution.
For all new members and members of the executive, a reminder that the by-laws and constitution are available on the website.
8. Other business
Ian S. passed the baton on to incoming president, John Wilson.
Moved to adjourn: Jon W., 2nd Elyn H.